captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a white house shakeup at the highest level. president trump picks secretary of homeland security john kelly as his new chief of staff, replacing reince priebus. then: >> this is, you know, clearly a disappointing moment. >> woodruff: a dramatic defeat: the u.s. senate fails to pass health care reform in an overnight vote, dealing a painful blow to president trump and the republican party. and, it's friday. mark shields and david brooks weigh in on all these developments, capping yet another tumultuous week for the trump administration. then, detroit's violent past put to paint. how the deadly 1967 riots inspire a new generation of

artists in the motor city. >> you're seeing is the emotions of the artists, describing history from their perspective. i see the politics, i see the social concerns that people had in it, and i see their pain. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years.

bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: reince priebus is

out as white house chief of staff tonight, after just six months on the job. president trump announced in a tweet late today, that john kelly, the secretary of homeland security, will take his place. the president had more to say, after returning from a day trip to new york-- a trip that priebus was on. >> reince is a good man. john kelly will do a fantastic job. general kelly has been a star, done an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. he's a great, great american. reince is a good man. >> woodruff: to help unpack what led to this change at the top, i'm joined now by robert costa, reporter for the "washington post," and moderator of "washington week" here on pbs. welcome, robert. as i go to you, i'm going to share with everybody briefly what the president's tweets were. he tweeted, this was late this afternoon, he said, i am pleased to inform you that i just named

general secretary john f. kelly as white house chief of staff. he's a great american and great leader. he also said john has ton a spectacular job at homeland security. he's been a true star at my administration. and finally, said i would like to thank reince priebus for his dedication and service to his country. we have accomplished a lot together and i'm proud of him. but i guess it didn't work out. >> it was a sudden change, judy, but a change in the works for months. the president brought on reince priebus because he saw him as a whisperer to house speaker paul ryan, a close friend of priebus from wisconsin and thought he could get his agenda through. but as that agenda stalled, he began to muse with friends about making a change at the top of the white house. kelly has been at the forefront of his mind because he's not a dramatic future and has executed for the president on immigration policy. >> woodruff: there have been so many ups and downs for this white house. how tid the president see reince

priebus as connected to that or not? did he blame him for what's been going on? >> he thought priebus because he had run the republican national committee could be a stabilizing force. but priebus as r.n.c. chairman was always a low-key presence, he was not known for managing a large organization in a military-style fashion. the president wanted that kind of person to come in and it's important to note kelly has a strong relationship with jared kushner senior advisor and steve bannon the achieve strategist and they represent the two polls in this warring white house. so there is an expectation from my sources kelly can come in and try to be a calming force. >> woodruff: you mentioned the two polls but we also had the athowment the other day from the president, he was bringing in a new communications director, anthony scaramucci who has been in a very visible war and the language he made with the

magazine reporter was making all kind of headlines yesterday. how does that it fit? >> it's a observation, seems incongruent to have this swashbuckler scaramucci to work alongside general kelly who is a very precise man. but the president is turning to a loyalist and military figures to try to right the shivment he knows his health care legislation is going nowhere on capitol hill. he's right recover his presidenty, turning to two different types, the new yorkers and the military. >> woodruff: so does this look to you, robert, like this is a team that can work smoothly together, that can get this white house back on some semblance of a normal track? >> well, general kelly has said publicly in the past that he would like to maybe try to monitor the president's calls, that he thinks there could be more organization inside to have the west wing. it's going to be interesting to see if he can really try to contain the oval office, an offing office that's known for

having a lot of entry way, people coming in and offering advice, often unsolicited to the president, if kelly can get ahold of that in way priebus never did maybe he can turn it around. he has to navigate the circles around president trump. he talks to a lot of people all the time. >> woodruff: what one hears is this is a president who real lelikes to be his own chief of staff. >> indeed. >> woodruff: he's a detailed person, wants to know what everybody is doing and how, how does that fit with someone like general kelly? >> general kelly does not have a deep personal relationship with president trump. will he stop the president from tweeting? that's what all my sources want the the know. can he actually stop the president, as you say, from being his own chief of staff and spokesman? for now seems like scaramucci and others are channeling the president in their public presentation, not trying to hold him back. >> woodruff: the other thing i have to raise are what the white house and president like to call the leaks which they say are coming from a lot of people in the white house and the

administration, they shouldn't b but then the stories one also hears is not only is the president talking to the press but people at the highest levels in the white house. how is all that likely to change or not as a result of this? >> it's a very messy situation because the president is furious behind the scenes. he's telling his aides they need to stop the leaks, but often these leaks are coming from some of his own white house officials and there's a big difference between intelligence community leaks and leaks about palace intrigue inside of the west wing. but a lot of the president's aides are just trying to reflect his own unhappiness about a white house he thinks is talking too much. >> woodruff: it is as you and i were just saying one more tumultuous day in what's been non-stop tumult. >> everyone was thinking attorney general sessions would be the one to go instead of priebus. >> woodruff: we don't know what will happen there. thank you. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: now, the day's other big story: the collapse of senate republican efforts to pass a health care bill. a last ditch effort for a partial repeal of obamacare failed by a single vote early today, frustrating republican leaders and the president. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: president trump today showed no sign of backing down despite the stunning senate defeat. >> they should've approved health care last night, but you can't have everything, boy, oh, boy. they've working on that thing for seven years. can you believe it? the swamp. but we'll get it done. we're going to get it done. >> reporter: at an event for police officers in ronkonkoma, new york, he was blunt. >> you knw, i said from the beginning, let obamacare implode and then do it. i turned out to be right. let obamacare implode. >> reporter: all this after the senate's overnight drama.

outside the capitol stood a crowd of protesters. inside, around 10:00 p.m. last night, republicans had just released their bill, and democrats like chris murphy were irate that the vote on it was in just two hours. >> this is nuclear grade bonkers, what is happening here tonight. >> reporter: hawaii democrat mazie hirono, now being treated for kidney cancer, added a personal dimension. >> i lost a sister to pneumonia when she was only two years old in japan. she died at home, not in a so i know how important healthcare is. what i don't get is why every single senator does not know that-- know that. >> reporter: a frustrated mike enzi, republican of wyoming, said democrats offered only complaints. >> and i started hearing, "it's not perfect. it's not perfect." well, where are the suggestions for making it as near perfect as

possible? >> reporter: and so shortly after midnight, a first vote began, with democrats somber and in their seats. on the opposite side, slowly- arriving republicans were more social. but something notable-- alaska senator lisa murkowski walks over to arizona's john mccain, and he signals a thumbs down. murkowski, along with susan collins of maine, were two expected no votes. soon, vice president mike pence stepped over, shook hands and then spent a long 20 minutes apparently trying to win mccain's vote. minutes later, another signal. mccain walked over to democrats. a large group surrounded him. nearby, g.o.p. leader mitch mcconnell walked the other way, just as mccain was embraced by california's dianne feinstein. the final vote resembled a great sporting event-- democrats on their feet, as mccain walked up to vote. some, like massachusetts' elizabeth warren, leaned to watch him.

and he signaled his vote with a simple thumbs down. democrats gasped and clapped, before their leader waved them off and stopped the applause. it marked a seismic shift in momentum, and emotions. >> this is, you know, clearly a disappointing moment. >> reporter: republican leader mcconnell thanked his side and slammed democrats. >> now, i imagine many of our colleagues on the other side are celebrating. i think the american people are going to regret that we couldn't find a better way forward. and as i said, we look forward to our colleagues on the other side suggesting what they have in mind. >> reporter: but as night turned to day, bipartisan calls grew louder. democratic minority leader chuck schumer said his party is ready. >> i hope we can work together

to make the system better in a bipartisan way. and i'm optimistic that that can happen. nobody has said obamacare is perfect. nobody has said our healthcare system doesn't need fixing. >> reporter: so where does that begin? likely with a return to the traditional committee process. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now for more, along with sarah kliff. she's a senior policy correspondent for the website vox, and covers health care. and you were with us last night, and we wanted to have you both with us again tonight. so, lisa, what a lot of drama. you were up most of the night covering that. where do things go from here? >> seems like the idea is perhaps they can get help from the health committee which is the health, labor and pensions committee in the senate, not just because its covers health care but because of its leaders. senator lamar from tennessee is chairman and ranking member is

patty murray, both are thought of highly and done bipartisan deals before. senator alexander are plage hearings and they're hoping something comes in the way of legislation. there were conversations on and off the floor. senator pursue saying democrats and republicans speaking with each other. seems like last night's vote was close but the truth is mccain was expressing something a lot of republicans felt, this bill was far short of a number of people who really wanted it to become law. >> woodruff: what are the road blocks? is it figuring out the policy? i've had people saying, well, if you could put folks in a room and not worry about politics you could get it done. you're suggesting it's not that simple. >> it's complicated because republicans are tried to put together different jobs. defunding planned parenthood is part of that, something susan collins and lisa murkowski haven't liked. the idea is if

they pair it down and giks the affordable care act, perhaps they can come up with ideas they share, but this is less than 4 hours after things fell apart. that is the hope now. >> woodruff: let's talk about what's at stake as they figure this out, sarah kliff, because until there is new legislation, the affordable care act is in effect, it's out there. what's going to happen to it? >> that is a fantastic question, and you're right, there are millions of people who get coverage through the affordable care act, particularly through the marketplaces. these are people who buy private insurance often with tax subsidies, and we are expecting pretty significant premium increases unless we have changes in policy from the trump administration. they have done things to increase uncertainty and then prices are raised and thanksgivings what the what we're seeing in the marketplaces now. >> woodruff: i know it's not even been 24 hours since this happen happened, but what's your yourensing from reporting on this a long time that insurance companies need to have in what are they looking for as congress

works its way through at this point? >> they're looking for two things. they want to know the individual mandate, the requirement to carry health insurance will be enforced by the trump administration, even though the trump administration has been negative on that, they will tell people if you don't buy insurance, there is a fine because they think that gets healthy people to sign up. they want to guarantee from flawmpt he will continue paying the cost sharing subsidies, the $8 billion fund to offset co-pays for low-income americans. they want guarantee on that. >> woodruff: what the president said and in fact was tweeting this morning and last night, let obamacare implode, which sounds like he's not going to be putting any money out there. >> nor does it sound like he necessarily wants to enforce the individual or employer mandates. so that's a real question for congress. does congress take action to force, for example, the cost sharing reductions at $8 billion, i think $10 billion

next year, does congress fund that on its own? many republicans would like to do that but they know that anything right now in congress like that is a heavy lift but is in the conversation. >> is there, is is a -- say sas you talk to folks, are they coming up with another approach at all this or standing back with their fingers crossed? how do they look at this? >> the insurance companies in particular have been less vocal in the appeal fight, more on stabilization. they talk about the cost sharing subsidies, the individual mandate. even today after we saw repeal fail, we saw a flurry of letters from insurance companies saying we need stabilization now and are getting close to the deadline. insurance companies have to decide in september if they're going to sell on healthcare.gov or not and these are assurances before they sign the contract letters. >> woodruff: if they're on that kind of time line, lisa, it

takes congress a while to get things done. they did have at least come recess coming in august. what does the time line look like there and what about house members? they've had a more conservative position than in the senate. >> the senate is in session two more weeks. that's part of the august recess they rolled back. i don't expect major action, but perhaps conversations can happen to give us an idea of whether something tangible is possible in september. speakespeaker ryan said he was frustrated and disappointed. diane black and others lashed out and said it was a slap in the face at what the house had done and seems like that will be a problem in the two chambers trusting each other in the future. there is a hope they could do something by september but i'm not sure what that's based on. >> woodruff: seems like a lot of people are standing back saying can the two parties work together now when clearly the

republicans acting on their own, it didn't happen. >> and lot rests with the trump administration at this point. they are creating a lot of the incertainty and it's been interesting to watch their health and human services department which has kind of acted as an attack shop on the affordable care act. they send me press releases every time an insurance company quits the marketplace or raises its rates and say, look, this is why we need repeal. i am watching to see if they change their tactics now that the repeal bill seems to be dud and say, yeah, we won't repeal but we run healthcare.gov now and we want to make it work as well as it can. we don't know if we'll see the shift but if we do it will be a 180 from how they treated the affordable care act now. >> woodruff: so much the ball is in the trump administration's court as we see what congress does. thank you both. extraordinary story to follow. sarah kliff, lisa desjardins, thank you. in the day's other news, north korea launched a second

intercontinental ballistic missile that flew higher and farther than its first attempt earlier this month. this missile stayed aloft for 45 minutes, before landing in the sea of japan, near the western japanese island of hokkaido. >> ( translated ): this launch clearly shows that the threat to our security is real and severe. as long as north korea continues these provocations, the u.s., south korea, china and russia and the whole international community must closely cooperate and apply additional pressure. >> woodruff: the pentagon confirms u.s. and south korea staged a joint live fire military exercise in response. the north korean missile was launched at a high angle. the north korean missile was launched at a high angle. some u.s. analysts say the flight path, flattened out, means it could reach the u.s. mainland. washington has slapped more economic sanctions on iran, for launching a rocket that can carry satellites. tehran said yesterday it successfully fired the rocket into space. the u.s. says the same technology could be used in missiles that carry warheads.

the new sanctions target six iranian companies that are deemed central to iran's ballistic missile program. the prime minister of pakistan is out of a job. he stepped down today, after the country's highest court ordered him removed from office. jonathan miller, of independent television news, has our report. >> reporter: 3,000 armed police and paramilitary rangers ringed pakistan's supreme court as, in courtroom number one, a five-judge panel met to decide the fate of prime minister nawaz sharif, accused of accumulating wealth disproportionate to his income. elected three times to the highest office, but yet to complete a five-year term, sharif has been toppled in a coup, jailed, exiled, and once before ousted for corruption. would history be repeated?

opposition glee signaled what was a unanimous guilty verdict. the prime minister deemed untruthful and dishonest, ordered to stand down and barred from holding office, as judges ordered a criminal investigation which could put him in jail. >> the team of the prime minister has committed heinous crime by way of fraud and forgery with the documents. >> reporter: the documents relate to posh flats in this block on park lane in london. leaked from a legal firm in panama, the panama papers revealed that two of sharif's sons and his daughter concealed family ownership of these through a string of offshore companies. nawaz sharif was questioned in person by civilian and military investigators just last month.

when he emerged, he said there was no stain of corruption on either him or his family, no embezzlement, no misappropriation of government funds. tonight he's gone, amid calls for the u.k. authorities to seize the properties in question. sharif must now nominate an interim successor to lead the country, until elections in ten months' time. he'll likely remain a potent force-- now, though, from behind the scenes. >> woodruff: that report from jonathan miller, of independent television news. israeli-palestinian tensions eased today at a flashpoint around a jerusalem mosque, one day after israel removed new security devices. but elsewhere, a palestinian teenager was killed in clashes with israeli troops at the gaza border. another palestinian was shot and killed in the west bank, after attacking israeli soldiers with a knife. a british baby whose plight gained international attention, died today, just short of his first birthday.

charlie gard had a rare genetic disease that damaged his brain and hindered his ability to breathe. his parents had wanted to try an experimental treatment in the u.s., but a british court ruled it would not help, and blocked the move. back in this country, the u.s. house today approved $3.9 billion in emergency spending for veterans' medical care. it is for a program allowing vets to seek private care at government expense. the effort began after a scandal over long wait times at v.a. hospitals. the bill now goes to the senate. president trump talked tough today about how police ought to treat criminal suspects. it happened during his speech in suffolk county, new york, on long island, about illegal immigration and violent crime. at one point, he criticized the police practice of shielding a suspect's head as they're taken away. >> i said, "please don't be too nice."

like, when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put the hand-- like don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody? don't hit their head? i said, "you could take the hand away, okay?" >> woodruff: mr. trump also pledged again to "destroy" the violent street gang, "m.s.-13." meanwhile, attorney general jeff sessions was in el salvador, where the gang controls entire towns. he said he hopes his efforts will help mend relations with the president, who's verbally attacked him for days. parts of north carolina's outer banks spent a second day in the dark, after construction workers accidentally cut the power supply. cars lined up to take ferries off ocracoke island, as officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of some 10,000 tourists. full restoration of power could take days, or weeks. and on wall street, disappointing earnings from amazon and other big firms kept

stocks in check. the dow jones industrial average managed to gain 33 points to close at 21,830. but the nasdaq fell seven and the s&p 500 slipped three. for the week, 1%. the nasdaq and the s&p lost a fraction of a percent. still to come on the newshour: russia retaliates aainst new u.s. sanctions. mark shields and david brooks weigh in on the white house shakeup. the 1967 detroit riots as seen through the lens of artists. and, much more. >> woodruff: the government of russia announced today that the u.s. would need to drastically reduce the number of its officials working in russia, and could no longer use two properties there. hari sreenivasan is in new york with more. >> sreenivasan: the move follows

two american actions, both related to the russian interference in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. last december, the obama administration seized two russian-owned compounds in the u.s., and expelled 35 russian diplomats who the u.s. claimed were intelligence operatives. yesterday, the u.s. senate passed a bill that included new sanctions on russia for its election hacking; that bill now awaits the president's signature, or veto. with me now is special correspondent nick schifrin. nick, in addition to what judy just told us, what are the russians demanding? >> by september 1, the u.s. has to reduce its staff inside of russia to 455, that's at the embassy in moscow and three consulates around the country, and by monday they'll lose access to a storage facility inside moscow as wells a country house they generally use outside of moscow, and russia vows to punish them even more if the u.s. responds. >> sreenivasan: is the state department concerned? do we have lots more people there? >> yeah, this is a major

escalation because of the numbers of people who are there. former u.s. officials tell me that there are anywhere from 1100 to 1500 staff in russia, so to bring that down to 455 could mean expelling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of u.s. staff. that is on a magnitude much higher than the expelling of 35 russians believed to be intelligence officers by president obama last year. so, clearly, today's announcement is designed not just to affect u.s.'s ability to conduct intelligence in russia but the u.s.'s ability entirely, the u.s. government's entire ability to conduct its operations in russia. >> sreenivasan: what are the russians you spoke o today telling you? is this a turning point is this. >> it could be a turning point because it does seem to signify that president vladimir putin has given up his hope that the relationship could get better. you know, the u.s. and russia have high-level talks going on right now and russia certainly had been expecting some

concessions out of that, but one russian official told me today, we came to a point where there was no hope those talks could reveal any results and that lack of hope prevails the entire russian view now. they hoped perhaps expected president trump to improve the relationship and other than pro russian rhetoric, not much has changed. there are some homes not returned and congressional bill. they have hoped the relationship would get better and seems like their patience has run out. you might say russia brought us to this place. russia says we didn't hack anything and the statement today calls what the u.s. is doing a witch hunt. quote, the u.s. is using russia's alleged interference in its domestic affairs as a contrived execution for percent veering and crude campaigns against russia.

>> sreenivasan: where is the relationship between the two countries in the longer arc? >> even during the cold war, there was no occasion where either side kicked out hundreds of the other person's staff. a lot of russia watchers told me today that they think it's about the early '80s. it's been that long since this relationship was that bad. that's, of course, after the soviet invasion of afghanistan. now, what brought the relationship better in the '80s was a change in soviet leadership, and president putin is not going anywhere. so the question is how does the u.s. respond not only to today but also does president trump sign that congressional bill increasing sanctions? >> sreenivasan: nick schifrin, thanks. >> thank you. >> woodruff: it's been another head-turning week in washington, from the republican failure on health care, to the president's surprising statement on transgender military members, and a flurry of profanity from the new white house communications director.

then, to cap it off, today's announcement from mr. trump that he is changing his chief of staff. here to help make sense of it all: shields and brooks. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. so i t-ought we had a lot of things to talk about, david, before about an hour ago when we learned the president was changing his chief of staff. i guess we knew that this might happen. reince priebus has been in trouble with this president, we think, for a while, but what do you think? >> well, he was never given the chance to do the job. every other chief of staff we've ever seen sort of controls the schedule, control the tempo in the white house, the alter ego of the president and are given a clear sign they speak for the president and priebus never had that. so he was wounded and stabbed before scaramucci came along, was stand like a piñata, so he was sort of a pathetic figure hanging out there. so this doesn't come as a total surprise except for maybe the timing. as for general kelly taking the

job, i sort of question his sanity there. he's been a loyalist, but i really, with all due respect to the marine corps, i don't see how someone who's been trained in pretty orderly chain of command is going to survive this mess. if he can control the schedule, it will be one thing. i just don't think that's going to happen given all the independent power figures all around him. >> woodruff: what do you make of it, priebus out and kelly in? >> judy, i am continually amazed that it's not simply a matter of human decency or empathy when your boss is firing anybody to make sure that person leaves and has a soft landing, that they can leave with their self-respect, that they can leave with someplace to go to, with a plausible explanation to their family and friends that they weren't humiliated, abused and derided. this president treats staff and others like a used sickness bag on a bad airplane flight.

it's just absolutely no sense of respect or decency shown, so you humiliate somebody. and for those who are left, there is just a sense of could by next? it certainly doesn't inspire loyalty. as far as kelly is concerned, general kelly is a four-star general. david put his finger on it, he had a distinguished and honorable career but he thrived in a military structure. as a chief of staff at the white house, this is a freelancing operation. there's no chain of command. all sorts of people who go in and see the president anytime, not accountable or responsible to you, and at least of all you have a president who will even abide by any sense of chain of command or structure. and i don't know that general kelly has any particular political gifts or knowledge of the legislative process or dealings with the press, so i know that the president admires

him and the job he's done at homeland security and his career, but i don't see the fit. >> woodruff: we should say reince priebus in the last few minutes, david, put out a statement saying it's been one of the greatest honors of his life to serve this president. i guess that's what one expects, maybe. >> gracious, i'm not sure he would pass a lie detector test. but one of the things that's happening here is the president is moving away from the republican party. priebus was a link to the republican party. the congressional republicans had some sort of relationship. jeff sessions was a key to the link between congressional republicans and donald trump, and he's been under assault in the most humiliating way imaginable. so you're beginning to see an administration -- i don't know what party they're joining, maybe the bannon party, but it's not the republican party, and if you want to pass legislation, you probably need your allies on capitol hill, if you want to survive investigative committees you probably want friends in your party, and this

administration seems to be moving the other direction. >> woodruff: in fact, you look at the white house, and vice president mike pence, mark, may be the only person prominent in the white house circle who has any kind of washington -- >> yes, judy, and president's thrive, ideally, when they're both loved and feared politically and donald trump is neither. nobody loves him on capitol hill. loyalty is a one way street. he's not somebody who has personal relationships of any standing, and the loyalty or disloyalty that he shows to his people including jeff sessions, the attorney general who was just humiliated, someone who was with him early and strong at a time when no other senator stood up for him and remained there through all the access hollywood and the how-to, molest and harass and sexually bar the women tapes and so forth. so there isn't that, judy. that doesn't exist.

david's absolutely right. when you get in trouble, you've got to have people who, a, like you, believe in you and are willing to go to some political cost for you. and we saw that on the healthcare. i mean, donald trump had about as much influence on healthcare as i had on the national league pennant race. >> woodruff: they had a struggle getting legislation passed. this was a flameout for them. >> this was a bigger thing than donald trump. there were not only one bill but four bills that were lost. it was not a six month, it was a seven-year effort. you can go back to newt gingrich, think of the ways republicans tried to trim entitlements, name a single victory. there's not. they haven't been able to trim one agency, cut back one entitlement, they failed every time. it's not a failure of whether mitch mcconnell had the right strategy, it's a failure of trying to take things away from

people. people are under assault from technology, they're under assault from a breakdown in social fabric, breakdown in families, wage stagnations, they just don't want a party to come in and say we'll take more away from you. so republicans have to wrap their minds around the fact that the american people basically decided health care is a right and figured our narrowly countrymen should get health care. doesn't mean you have to do it with single payer, you can do it with market mechanisms but you have to basically wroop your mind around universal coverage. >> woodruff: where do you see it going on health care, mark? >> the yapping dog, the republican party, after chasing the bus seven years caught it and had no idea what to do with the bus. all you need is the final vote that lisa described so well, and that is the final argument, after seven years, after winning three national elections, where this is your organizing issue,

repeal obamacare, came down to sage promises and pledge to your fellow republicans from the leadership, and that is what you are voting for we promise will not become law. i mean, if you can imagine anything. that just said it all. it was a terrible performance. the house voted on something without even a congressional budget scoring of it. the senate voted on something they didn't even have a bill when they brought it to the floor. there was no legislation. so, i mean, it was horrendous. it was disappointing. there were no ideas, there was no will, there was no imagination, and there was certainly no courage. i don't blame donald trump but what was donald trump saying? donald trump was saying he's disappointed in the attorney general because he wasn't loyal to him. that was his contribution to the debate on health care as it came to a vote in the senate. >> woodruff: what do you think the prospects are david that they are going to be able to work with the democrats or is that just something people are saying that's never likely going to happen? >> i think there is a potential

there. if the republicans get to the point we're going to expand coverage, let's talk about how do it, i think you could do some pretty market-friendly reforms. president bush did it with the prescription drug bill a number of years ago, but they're a long way from that right now. >> john mccain does deserve, in my judgment, a shoutout. john mccain's vote flying back kept the debate alive, allowing the motion to proceed, and john mccain applied the -- gave the speech, once he had the whole audience there of senators, and he told them what they had done wrong, that they all stood accused, cheap partisanship replaced any sense of legislating, and i really do think that his vote -- we found out that the tees t testosteronl among republicans were limited to two members whose names were lisa and susan, and john mccain joined that want trio and

showed, i thought, distinct political courage and for the right reasons. >> woodruff: and some of the republican men in the house of representatives went after those women, as a matter of fact. >> yes. >> woodruff: it does raise a question. people are watching this, david, and have to be asking is anything going to get done in our nation's capitol? with the white house in some measure of chaos, yes, there have been some changes, but where's the -- you know, what are people to look forward to now? >> yeah, i don't think much is going to get done. i don't think they're going to do tax reform. tax reform is super hard, potentially as hard or harder than health care reform, and seems very unlikely that gets done. what hasn't happened is you don't have people waking up thinking how creatively can i come up with some piece of legislation that will do somebody some good. when i started covering congress

in the 1980s, there were a bunch of entrepreneurs. jack kemp was there. bill bradley had something on the gold standard. jim cord had defense reform ideas. so startups in the back of the house and phi neighled their way through the committees. now you have few entrepreneurs. havvery few people are thinking creatively. i have a friend from palo alto who thinks this way through there is not as much as entrepreneurship and the main cause is the leadership has taken control and centralized everything, so the committee system is broken and the startups are broke. >> woodruff: and the white house is having its share of problems affidavit lot of attention about this profanity-laced phone conversation that the new white house communications director --

he hasn't actually taken the job but been famed by the president -- had with a "new yorker" reporter. seems everywhere we look there is conflict, screaming, discord. you know, where do we see hope and something positive? >> well, obviously not in shields and brooks. (laughter) >> woodruff: i'm giving you a chance. >> sunday 9:00, if people want to hear a good sermon. (laughter) anthony scaramucci is donald trump. every white house staff to some degree becomes a mirror reflection of the candidate, the president. he is it. what he did, donald trump approved on, the abusing of the chief of staff, the den congratulations of other leading members of the white house staff. i mean, did donald trumpcies approve? if you have a 14-year-old daughter volunteering on the

hill -- a 14-year-old boy, i don't care -- and this is the kind of language you get? this is blood curdling. it's offensive and obscene. >> woodruff: you get to defend him, david. >> it is offensable. i'm from new york city and mark's from boston and on behalf of 8 million new yorkers i want to apologize for the language. i'm pretty sure they're yankees fans, not mets fans. we don't talk that way. blood kurd ling, i agree, would be the word. >> woodruff: i gave you a chance to say something positive. we'll try again next week. david brooks, mar mark shields, thank you both. >> woodruff: now, a look at how artists captured detroit's turbulent history in the civil rights era. this week marks the 50th anniversary of major civil unrest in the motor city, and a

unique series of exhibitions are chronicling that moment. jeffrey brown went to michigan to see them. >> brown: a fiery red sky. people "trapped in a city" with charred remains from the 1967 detroit riots. a painting by yvonne parks catchings, in an exhibition titled "say it loud: art, history, rebellion" at the charles h. wright museum of african american history. striking images of confrontation, and consequences, in works by national and local artists from the 1960s on. curator patrina chatman: >> what i think you're seeing is the emotions of the artists, describing history from their perspective. i see the politics, i see the social concerns that people had in it, and i see their pain. and i feel their pain, and i think other people will feel it as well. >> brown: july, 1967: five days

of violence, fear and destruction in a major american city, that would leave 43 dead, some 7,200 arrested, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. 50 years later, some of the city's leading cultural institutions are asking questions: "was it a riot? a rebellion? even a revolution?" and, using art to look back and ahead. at the detroit historical museum-- which for the record, has been a funder of the newshour and which spearheaded the city-wide effort-- old tvs play news footage. a replica of a national guard tank has been turned into a kind of audio/visual experience, with oral histories told by detroiters. the venerable detroit institute of art is also offering personal histories, through "home movies" of life in detroit in good times and bad, many of them sent in by

ordinary citizens. the detroit institute of arts weighs in with an exhibition titled "art of rebellion: black art of the civil rights movement," with works by individuals-- including leading figures such as romare bearden and sam gilliam-- and so-called "collectives" formed in the 1960s and after, by artists seeking a greater voice in society. curator valerie mercer: >> the civil rights movement and the black power movement emboldened a lot of the african american artists. most of the mainstream art museums did not provide many opportunities to african american artists during the '60s and '70s. they were also very uncomfortable dealing with racial, social and political issues, so they avoided that work. now things are changing, fortunately. >> brown: several local artists attended the opening, including allie mcghee, who told me of his encounters with the national guard 50 years ago. >> i had people drive up, because i was out past curfew, and have a young man who's like

17, 18, scared to death, stick a bayonet in your ribcage. you don't forget stuff like this. >> brown: for this exhibition, mcghee contributed a painting from 1968, titled "black attack," and a later abstract work, titled "apartheid." since then, his art has gone well beyond such subjects-- it just took him a while to get past what he'd witnessed. >> it wasn't something you could walk away from. and for me, it sort of like, was a dominant subject matter for maybe 15 or 20 years. >> brown: you couldn't get it out of your head or your mind or your work? >> no, you can't. the subtleties of it kept recurring. i had to work that out of my painting experience. it's not good to be angry. it lowers the intellectual level. you don't accomplish a lot. you're blinded by it. >> brown: rita dickerson's painting commemorates the terror

and killings of three black men at the algiers hotel, one of the most harrowing episodes of those july days. but, she also adds the names of young black men and women killed in police shootings, more recently. dickerson grew up on detroit's east side. >> we had two bakeries. we had a hardware store, two pharmacies. everything was there within one block, and we could walk every place. and during the riot, all that burned down. and 50 years later, it has not returned. it's still desolate. it breaks my heart. breaks my heart. >> brown: in so many of detroit's neighborhoods, on so many blocks, the abandoned homes and empty lots remain. but there are signs of life in detroit today. the youngest artist in the exhibition, 29-year-old mario moore, is literally a product of the museum: his parents met here.

>> so, it's my grandmother holding images of her living sons, and a sense of protection. "these are mine, you can't have them," right? >> brown: his grandmother, helen moore, is a longtime detroit activist, and the subject of mario's work here. it addresses violence and how it's portrayed. >> as soon as you turn on the news, what tends to happen is they show the mourning black mother, the mother that's crying about the recent death of her son, her husband, her daughter. >> brown: that's the narrative, the story. >> that's the narrative you get. and i feel like it was something that began out of a way to kind of find compassion for the "other," right? but once that gets used over and over and over again, it loses its value. nobody really cares anymore. and for me, the women in my family have a very different perspective. i feel they're very protective, they're very powerful. >> brown: different perspectives on detroit's past and future, through exhibitions around the

city over the coming months. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in detroit. >> woodruff: finally, to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that we thought might be of interest to you, too. boston's inner city often sees a spike in violence during the summer, when many students are out of school and on the streets. but as tina martin from pbs station wgbh reports, one mother is trying to change that trend by exposing young people to the outdoors. >> reporter: amid trees, chirping birds and rugged rocks. it wasn't always easy to do, but judith foster smiles as she leads her group on a three-mile walk through the blue hills reservation in milton. the walks are part of her "hero" group. >> healing, empathy, redemption, oasis. >> reporter: foster started the

walks as a way to heal from her own tragedy. >> about 8:00 in the morning or so, i got home from work and that was the news i got home to, that my son had been murdered. >> reporter: four years ago, judith's youngest child, paul, a senior at a college in north carolina, was shot and killed at a nightclub, just few weeks before he was set to graduate with a degree in computer science. paul's murder is still under investigation. but during her time of loss and grief, judith says she found solace in walking the blue hills. >> he had a love of nature, and i thought by being close to nature i'd be close to him. >> reporter: so every saturday, she invites people to walk with her. >> we have to do something to break the cycle, break the mold, nobody would think is fun at the end of the day. >> reporter: 25-year-old bakari johnson uses the walks to get away from the noise of the city. he hopes to keep walking all

summer to stay away from trouble. >> it is a worry, but personally i feel like i've been not just lucky so far-- part of the reason i'm still here is i have been smart. >> it's really simple, right? what we're doing is taking a walk in nature, which is a tremendous resource, which is available to us. >> reporter: pastor mark scott, co-chair of the boston youth violence reduction task force, hopes as it gets hotter and violence spikes, young people will choose to take a few steps to keep the peace. >> we're constantly being hit and bombarded by this kind of violence, and we have to react to it every time. but there are things that can be done, traditions that we can create. like coming out on a saturday to take a walk in the woods that are right next to the your city. >> reporter: the hero group gets bigger as the weeks go by. the walks are free and open to anyone. judith believes her son paul would approve. >> he's smiling, he's loving it.

>> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm tina martin in milton, massachusetts. >> woodruff: and on the newhour online: our politics team recently asked for your best haiku about the health care battle, and you sent in an outpouring of poetic expression. ronnie dugger and dorothy workman sent in our winning poems, which you can read in our "here's the deal" newsletter, that you can sign up to receive in your inbox every week, and on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and another reminder that robert costa will continue coverage of the most recent white house shake-up and the aftermath of the health care vote, on "washington week," which airs later tonight here on pbs. tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend: india is creating a biometric database of all its citizens using fingerprints and

eye scans, but some have raised privacy and security concerns. >> reporter: ajay bushan pandey heads aadhaar, the agency running the identification program. >> we have now reached the figure of 1.15 billion. >> reporter: pandey says the aadhaar project improves national security by making it easier to monitor border crossings with india's neighbors. opponents of aadhaar, like were skeptical when it began as a voluntary program to improve transparency in the welfare system. >> you need electricity 24/7, you need the internet up and running 24/7, you need proper data speeds. so, given the limitations of technology, given the absence of a privacy law, for the government to steamroller this kind of scheme, to my mind, seems ill advised. >> woodruff: that's tomorrow night on pbs newshour weekend. and, tune in sunday for a special pbs event. witness bears and wolves in the wild-- live-- with hosts chris and martin kratt.

"wild alaska live" offers an up-close and personal look at some of the most remote areas of the country. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

. >> welcome to the program, tonight we begin with mark halperin and john heilemann of nbc news an msnbc and we talk about donald trump at six months. >> the new incoming white house communications director who is not even taken his job yet, is he not even officially in the job yet, is publicly calling for an fbi investigation of the white house chief of staff. and and twitter. >> rose: and we conclude this evening with singer songwriter conor oberst and a performance from his latest album salutations. >> the hope of course is that i think all art is a communications, you are kind of like, you are putting on the little balloon and throwing it in the air and you don't know if anyone is going to receive it on the other side. but that is the hope, you know. >> politics, and music. when we continue.